Oratorio di San Marco - Palermo

A small monument in the heart of the Capo district is little known to Palermo residents but has a remarkable past . This little gem of medieval origin is better known in the city as il “Boccone del Povero”, the poor man's supper.

Reduced almost to rubble at the end of the 19th century, the religious complex has survived to this day thanks to the courage and stubbornness of Saint Father Giacomo Cusmano of Palermo, to whom it was entrusted in 1873 by Archbishop Michelangelo Celesia to to provide shelter for the "House of the Poor" . Father Giacomo Cusmano managed without much difficulty to prevent the demolition of the church and the oratory by demonstrating to the institutions, which had other projects for the area, the importance of the historical and artistic value of the two monuments.

Today, the entire religious complex is still managed by the Congregazione femminile del Boccone del Povero (Women's Congregation of the Poor Man's Supper), which, in addition to its traditional charity work for the city's poor, today opened the completely renovated structure to to receive tourists, pilgrims and groups.

Willem Vandenameele